He'd sent for Roxinne Natano over an hour ago, and she still hadn't arrived. He was reluctant to make another announcement. Bryant had been difficult enough to deal with as it was, and it was only through the intercession of Dr. Muraida that he'd been able to arrange visitation at all. Was it possible she hadn't heard? He could be wasting one of his precious two days here waiting for nothing.

That thought did bring him to his feet, and he tried pacing, but it didn't warm him and only made him feel more out of breath, so he sat down. He was used to the Keep. It was kept at precisely 76 degrees farenheit at all times, and much of the internal room structure was separated by small outdoor atriums. A very pretty, very open place; not like this oversized metal box. No wonder his boys were having trouble. Who could be expected to grow and thrive in a can?

Everyone had a place in Command School that they refused to go. For Swede, it was the infirmary. For Dante, the battleroom. For Rox, it was anywhere even remotely in the vicinity of the administrative sector. She avoided authority like the plague. Even walking past that forboding corridor gave her the shakes. So you can imagine her reaction when she realized that first of all, she'd have to go there, and second, that she'd have to go there to see an officer.

Rox was scared.

Maybe it was nothing. Maybe they just wanted to see how her classes were going. Trying to be optimistic did no good, and Rox spent a half hour debating over what to do while she paced in her cell and jittered nervously. What if they had discovered her trade? She would be iced-- she had no doubt about that-- and her boys could be traced. That thought had sent her into another fit, and she spent the second half hour frantically building another security system to hide her files in. They could toss her back to Earth, but she was responsible for the illegal trade to clients that included nearly half of the command school student population. She couldn't very well let them burn in hell just because she'd somehow gotten caught.

Being scared made Rox hyper, and she had the nervous energy of a hummingbird as she finally finished her work and left her barracks. It was only a few minutes walk from her quad, but it took her nearly ten minutes, as she kept stopping in the hallway and fighting the urge to run back to her room and hide under her bed. It couldn't be that bad. If she was in real trouble, they probably would have come to get her. Right?

She finally arrived at the entrance to the G12 office, and sternly reminded herself that whoever was inside would have a reason to be suspicious if she kept acting so guilty. It wasn't easy, but she managed an expression that she hoped would be read as innocence, and hit the button for the door.

Someone said "Come in!" with a harsh tone, and Rox almost jumped straight out of her uniform.

I'm innocent. I haven't hurt anyone. I'm not gonna get in trouble. I hafta remember that.

She opened the door and peeked her head inside, fear making her chocolate eyes impossibly wide, and curiosity picked at her a little as she noticed the man inside. He wasn't dressed in anything that denoted his involvement with the International Fleet. That was either a really good sign, or a really bad one. Rox looked around rapidly, her gaze finally settling on the man, and piped up in a shaky voice. "Um, hi."

That was smooth.

She perched there like a bird, fluttering nervously and ready for flight at the slightest hint of danger.

He straightened the left cuff of his dark blue tunic before looking up to meet her half-concealed frantic gaze. Dominic must have had a reason for saying what he did. Perhaps he could find out what he wanted to know from this hyperactive child and he wouldn't have to call the other one at all.

Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. He said Creche Keep. He said Dr. Litong. That's who Dommy was talking about.

Rox couldn't help herself. She didn't have the presence of mind to be anything but herself-- completely insensible-- and she muttered a quiet curse. "Kuso..." It took her another moment before she realized that Litong was watching her, and she flushed a little, still poised to flee if he mentioned anything about trouble. Her eyes narrowed a little, and she cocked her head at him and stared unabashedly. Dominic must have told Litong what had happened... but if so, why was he here to talk to her? Rox wished that Dante was here, because at least she'd understand the situation and keep her from doing something stupid, but since she had no such person to keep her in check, she just gave him a curious and uncertain smile and shook her head.

"Dominic, yes. Ms. Natano, you are aware of Dominic's background, since you recognize the Keep. I assume Dominic told you." Conditioning violation, level one. "I have gathered from Dominic's debriefing that you were sex partners. He has expressed an interest in seeing you again, before we reassign them. I have taken it under consideration, but I must be very sure you understand precisely what that means."

Her large chocolate eyes were fastened on his, still a trifle wide, her face serious enough to be comical in a little-girl fashion, and Litong felt a trifle guilty for what he was about to do.

"You see, Rox," he said gently, his voice lowering a little, "we at the Keep try to make sure the general public is made aware that our children are entirely human - no cybernetics or non-human enhancements at all. We are proud of our children, because they are, to a degree, what humanity strives to be. Dominic can run faster and farther than you or I ever hope to, even given serious physical training for years, and he can do it at the drop of a hat. He has increased strength and muscle density. His skeletal structure is sturdier, equipped to withstand twice the strain of a normal human - a necessity, I'm afraid, given his other enhancements. He heals more quickly, and can recover from far more grevious wounds than you or I could withstand. Physically, he's as close as we've come to perfect."

He took a breath and assumed a look of understanding pity.

"Unfortunately, the environment we are required to raise our children in for their own safety as well as the general public's is not ideal for emotional growth. We train our children from a very early age to look to their twins and to us for support and understanding, because there are a lot of ignorant people in the real world who would very much like to abuse their talents, or worse, kill them outright. We do encourage sexual interplay, when they have matured; Dominic and Donovan were placed with a breeding pair when they were fourteen, to learn necessary human interaction. We try to prepare them for any possible situation. It keeps them safe."

"Rox, Dominic explained to me that he told you he loves you. This might be difficult for you to hear, but Dominic...is not capable of that kind of affection, that level of affection, towards anyone but Donovan. We've crafted him that way for a very specific purpose, and a very good one. He is still learning; they learn quickly, but some concepts are harder to grasp than others for the Crecheborn. They register cause and effect; side effect of living in a scientific community. Dominic registered your reaction and sought to enhance it in the same fashion he saw others around him, but they're just words," he said softly. "He doesn't know what they mean, and I don't know if he ever will."

What did he mean that Dominic couldn't love her?!

For once, Rox honestly didn't know what to say, and could only stare at Litong as her mouth fell open. She might have looked funny, if it wasn't for the expression of complete and utter disbelief in her eyes; not frightened uncertainty, but a look that meant to say 'how dare you tell me this?' She couldn't believe what he was trying to tell her. Dominic not capable of love. It was ridiculous. Absolutely fucking ridiculous, and she was going to tell him so, because that was something Rox was good at. Honesty.

"Anata wa kusotare desu nee!" She blurted out, then realized he probably didn't understand, and repeated it again. "You're full of shit. I don't believe you!"

He made to speak, and Rox shook her head at him, trying to organize her thoughts into one coherent entity. It didn't work, because she was angry. Rox rarely got angry; it just didn't suit her personality, she thought. Since life was just a game, there was no need to worry or become angry over it... but Dr. Litong wasn't playing very fairly. He was lying, and that was against the rules, and for one whose feelings had been humored her entire life, Rox was not equipped to deal with something of this magnitude.

She stood up, and stamped her foot, and proceeded to throw a tantrum.

"No wonder he doesn't like you!" Stamp stamp. She scowled at him like an upset child and wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I don't like you either!" How dare he have the nerve to come all the way here and lie about Dominic like that. What, did he think she was really that stupid? She knew that he wasn't supposed to love her, but he did, and nothing that Dr. Litong could make up would convince Rox otherwise. "I know all about you, and all the nasty things you try to do to them if they don't wanna follow your stupid Creche rules." Stamp. "An' I love Dommy, and he loves me, and Don loves Jéli, and she loves him, and we hate you!"

Having mentioned Dante's name, the thought that Litong might give this same lie to her made Rox's eyes widen in horror, and she gaped at Litong again and waved her hands in wild gesticulation. "Don't you dare tell Dante this kuso lie! It's bad enough that you took them from us and made them all sad and Dommy says that you'll probably separate them but you can't!"

Rox stamped her foot with each word as emphasis. "He--" Stamp. "loves--" Stamp. "me!" Stamp.

And you're just a big fat liar, and a cruel one at that. I hope you fall over and die right now.

Donovan and Dominic had never thrown tantrums. Their environment had been far too carefully controlled, their training too regimented and tailored to allow for that kind of emotional upheaval. They had battalions of psychiatrists, doctors and behaviorists working on deciphering their tiniest deviations, and they had learned early to curb any outward displays of emotion that weren't part of their training.

He stared at her and tried to be objective. She was upset, of course. Anyone would be. Perhaps Dante would be more malleable.

Rox's busy little mind was instantly at work, trying to process what was a little too much for her to understand. This doctor was offering her a chance to see Dominic... but only if she acquiesed and admitted that it wasn't love that was taking her there. That made her angry again, but she curbed it, too irritated at his demeanor to really focus. She hated being ignored, and he was doing just that-- not listening, and making these demands. Hadn't he heard? Didn't he realize that Dom did love her, and she knew it?

Ooh, it was so tempting to throw something at him. He looked so smug, sitting there and speaking with that dismissive tone. Her thoughts wandered to ideas of all the really nasty things she could do to him while he still remained here at the school; wouldn't Landry and Chicko have fun with him. They could turn off all the heat in his room, and fuck up his desk, and--

Baka! We're supposed to be thinking about Dommy!

Sometimes Rox got a little carried away.

She regarded him blankly for a moment, before rational thought returned. Dominic. They had their desks. She could just run back to her room, and grab Dante on the way, and they could write to their twins. Maybe Dom knew what this was. Maybe he could reassure her. Maybe this was just some sort of mix-up.

"I don't want your invitation," she scowled, and then replied loftily. "I'll talk to Dommy, and if he says it's alright for me to go with you and visit him, then I will." She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him in smug response to his patronization. "I'll let you know what we decide."

Rox was talking to Dominic. Somehow, probably through the desk, they had established communication. He shouldn't have been surprised, really; Dominic and Donovan had both received the requisite computer training, and there was no reason they shouldn't shine in that area as well as every other. This corruption had spread farther than he was aware.

What more could he do, on his own? There was no telling now what damage might have been done, what further damage Natano was doing now, free in the hallways with some way to contact Dominic and tell him what he'd done. He should have done more careful research - but his data set had been so limited!

He looked down at his desk that stood open on the table. He didn't want to send the letter he had there. It would mean Dominic and Donovan removed from the Command Post, and probably from the military program altogether. That was something he had wanted to avoid; he wanted the best for them, and the IF offered the greatest potential for freedom for one or both of them. To Litong, that was the best.

But not if they were dangerous. Not if they were corrupt. Then the best thing would be to keep them under the same watchful eye as the rest of the Creche children, to salvage them if they could and to sell them if they could not. He had seen firsthand what Dominic and Donovan were capable of. There was little they could not do, and that better than almost any normal human.

Dante could have cared less, because it wasn't Donovan sitting there.

Her silver eyes flicked over him briefly, but his dark blue uniform held no insignia, and she didn't know what to make of this. Not from the International Fleet? It wasn't the uniform of the Internal Alliance, either, and a hint of curiosity unburied itself despite her attempts to smother it. Whatever he wanted didn't matter, she reminded herself. This is inconsequential to everything.

She paused behind the chair set before her, because she had not yet been invited to sit, and nodded her head at him slightly. "Excuse me if I'm late, sir, but I was not at my desk when your message was received. I'm Anjélice Iddantél."

He was watching her closely, and she eyed him with a flat stare that was almost too icy to be called polite.

He had felt a little guilty for delivering his carefully structured speech to Natano. Unreasonably, he felt even more so for what he was about to tell this cold girl in front of him now - unreasonably, because from what he could gather from her file and from what he saw before him, emotionally, this girl was already dead.

Evan suddenly wished he'd had a chance to talk to Donovan as well as Dominic before making this trip.

The Creche Keep. He was here to talk to her, no doubt, about the twins. Perhaps this was just some routine questioning; after all, they had left the school in a less than ideal state. Dante knew not what had happened to either of them, and she did not care to know. No, that wasn't true... part of her still hurt, but it was hidden, and cold indifference was just so much easier to live with than hope.

Her expression did not display this train of thought, nor did it betray her recognition of his reference. She sat down gracefully and folded her hands in her lap, her voice a liquid, accented ice whose tone matched the frigidity of her mercury eyes.

"If I may be honest, Dr. Litong, I am not quite certain how your business here might concern me." Dante surveyed him with blank apathy. This was merely a play, and willing or not, she was involved. He could ask his questions, and she would answer them with noncommittal deference, and then she could leave and return to the constant struggle of forgetting Donovan.

Donovan...

He had read her file, as he'd read Natano's file and every other piece of information he could about the two of them before and during the journey here. He'd even managed to find some of their school reports. Everything that good research and a slightly relaxed sense of electronic scruple had allowed him access to he had studied as he had once studied the twins. He knew about the fight with Nathan Terrence, and he knew that Terrence had been primarily responsible for Donovan's broken neck, and presumably for Dominic's slit throat.

He knew that when she was 14, Terrence, then one of her soldiers, had broken her ribs and then beaten her would-be rescuing toon leader into a pulp before some of the other soldiers had managed to knock him down. Terrence had been re-introduced into Command School only a few weeks before Donovan and Dominic had been withdrawn. Terrence was the key to the battle that had gotten the twins iced, and Terrence had vanished in the aftermath. None of his research had yielded any hard evidence as to his current whereabouts.

Dante was all he had to go on. Perhaps if he was frank, she could tell him what he wanted to know.

Months ago, this would have mattered to Dante. Desperate and bereft of her love, she would have done anything Litong asked of her, if only to hear that Donovan was alright, that he was safe, and that he missed her. It would have meant so much, once. But if time does not heal all wounds, then it does teach us to cover them, and that was what Dante had done. Overwhelmed, she had locked down her emotion and gone on living... and even if it was painful, then at least it was familiar. She'd lived with pain before. She could do it again.

And so it wasn't hope that made Dante nod slightly in agreement, but something entirely different. Nothing he said or did or promised could reconcile her to what had happened. She was not foolish, and thus, held no illusions.

He knew they were friends. Natano had been in contact with Dominic. There was no reason Iddantel shouldn't have done the same. Perhaps he could knock her out of this indifference by revealing that he knew her secret. He needed her to be honest, and she was far too guarded at the moment to be honest.

"As I'm sure you know, Donovan and Dominic Creche have been at the Command Post for the past two months, recovering from their fight with Nathan Terrence. I spoke to your friend Roxinne Natano, and I know that you have been in contact with them. I have come here on their behalf." He took a breath and studied her for reaction before continuing.

"I have watched over Donovan and Dominic since they were very small, Ms. Iddantel."

I know all about you, and all the nasty things you try to do to them if they don't wanna follow your stupid Creche rules!

He... he had just said that Rox had spoken to Dominic and Donovan. She didn't believe it. He had to be lying; Donovan had never once attempted to contact her, and Rox would have told her if she'd managed to find them. She would have. Dante's head spun as she tried to go over the events of the past few months, searching for any signs that she had missed. Rox had been more absentminded and easily startled than usual, but it wasn't unexpected; everyone coped in different ways. She knew she'd gone emotionally catatonic. Rox just reacted differently. It didn't mean anything. It didn't mean that her friend had been hiding the fact that she knew Donovan was alive. It didn't...

She blinked and was about to reply, but Litong interrupted with more questions. Nearly uncaring, Dante was nonetheless unprepared for what he asked next. "Ms. Iddantel, can you tell me why Nathan Terrence attacked Donovan and Dominic?"

Pain replaced the ice in her gaze almost too quickly to be noticed, but Dante felt it.

Because he was trying to protect me... oh mon amour, if you had only listened...

This was not good.

Dominic and Donovan, like all other Creche children, were programmed to keep themselves alive and safe. They were far too valuable to be encouraged towards selfless activity. At the most basic level, the very first priority of all the Crecheborne was to protect themselves. That could be overridden, should they be assigned to bodyguard duty, but it took special training to bypass. The twin units were created to be independent of outside influence and attachment.

They might take a calculated risk for a calculated gain, of course. There was no reason for them to consider any normal unarmed human a serious threat, or even much of a challenge. Iddantel was not remarkable from other Command School students. If they had been protecting Natano, that might have made sense; Natano had connections with underground supply routes, and could probably offer them something substantial in return for their services. From the data he had, she probably had. Iddantel had no such recourse, and there was nothing in her file to indicate promiscuity. Donovan and Dominic had nothing to gain by helping Iddantel, and that meant they had done it without logical reason. For friendship.

For love?

Conditioning violation, level five.

He had no recourse now. There was little doubt in his mind that Dominic and Donovan had broken their programming constraints, and as such, they constituted a very serious risk. The conditioning the Creche children were subject to was not enforced to be cruel or overbearing; that conditioning kept them safe, and it improved their performance. It also served to convince the general public that Creche children were under control, and the general public needed that kind of assurance. Superiority was always looked upon with fear and suspicion. That conditioning protected the public from the twins, but it also protected the twins from the public.

Placing his elbows slowly on the table, Dr. Litong lowered his face into his hands and tried to think. His course of action was clear. There was no alternative. He was supposed to alert the project leader and have them sedated and brought in containment back to the Keep for possible salvage. Even if they were successfully repaired, that mark would remain on their records. The Keep would want to get rid of them, and quickly. They were damaged goods.

But...

Litong had never known love - not the romantic connotation of the word, but his work was his life, and Dominic and Donovan were his work. If he turned them in now, it would mean an end to everything he had worked for, an end to years of effort and planning, and not a pretty one, but it was his duty. If Dominic and Donovan hurt something or someone before they could be contained, that could set back the project for years. Investors did not put their money into faulty products.

He thought of Dominic's face just before he'd run away from the restaurant at the Command Post and suffered a barrage of unhappy confusion. What was best? He was a geneticist. He knew that following the existing rules was not always the wisest course of action, but he had no reference. He had no rules by which to evaluate these rules. This had moved away from the scientific and into the unsteady terrain of emotion, and he was utterly unsure. In his own way, he admitted, he loved the twins, and wanted what was best for them, but did the rest of the Keep deserve to be put at risk for their possible benefit?

One of his hands slid to the tabletop, and he pressed the palm of the other against his left eye, frowning furiously. His head was pounding, and when he met Iddantel's gaze with his open eye he doubted he was successfully hiding his conflict.

The conflict in his gaze mirrored her own, and Dante did not know what to say.

She loved Donovan, with all her heart. He gave her balance-- she was his reserve, and he was her humanity. She huddled around that unconditional loyalty and love because it gave her the strength and emotion that had left her when Angel did. He saw through the ice, and at a risk to himself, had ventured to reach past it. Dante never knew or understood why she had let him love her. She was only grateful that he did.

Litong's gaze was intense, but she read the battle inside. If he wasn't trying to save the twins, he would have turned them in by now. There was something holding him back, but she dared not ask what it was. She wasn't sure she'd want to know, anyway.

Dante looked down at her hands. "Oui," she murmured, then glanced up and spoke clearly. "Yes."

Even now I can't lie about my love for him.

Roxinne Natano's display had been incomprehensible, but in the manner in which emotion had always been properly incomprehensible to him. Madness, it was all different degrees of madness masquerading as other, prettier things. Reserve was order. Emotion was entropy, whatever mask it chose to wear: love, hate, anger, happiness...it was all the same thing, all the same disorder.

But Iddantel was not screaming or shouting; Iddantel was sitting across from him as cold and composed as it was possible to be, a picture of order, and that order was not in conflict with the love in her eyes. That glimmer, that glint that he could not identify, that he could not catalogue, that must be love.

What does it mean? Does it mean that love can be ordered? Or simply that love can co-exist with order? Does it mean that it's real, that Iddantel loves Donovan, or that it isn't, because it comes under such heavy binding? I do not understand. This does not make sense. Is that why I fear it? Because I do not understand it? No, because *no one* understands it, not really. No one but the people who are within it, and their objectivity is comprimised.

How many different problems like this have I encountered since working with the twins? I never hit something I couldn't get past. Those things I did not understand, not at first, but everything came clear, eventually. We did things with Dominic and Donovan they didn't think could be done. Am I to stop here, stop this now, ruin all my work and theirs because I've hit another block?

No. I'll study it. I'll *understand* it, as I understand them, and then I will decide. One does not uncover knowledge by abandoning the experiment in process. Science is risk.

I will take that risk for them, even if this is justification for my own disorder. My own emotion. I can do nothing else. I will be watching, and when I know...when I know, then I will decide what to do.

The resignation in his eyes mirrored her own, and she watched him with something akin to understanding. But there was one emotion that ran higher than any other, that gently laid aside the ice and lent amethyst to her gaze. It was a feeling she hadn't had in too long to remember, a twisted sense of hurt and relief that she hadn't felt since the first time Donovan said he loved her. It was sudden, and she was unprepared for it, and it made her cold composure soften.

Gratitude. Litong, no matter what his motives, had come because of Donovan. She didn't care why, only that he had. She was grateful, and she did not understand it, but that didn't mean it wasn't there.

And like every time that Dante did not know how to express herself, she whispered so that he would not understand. "Merci..."

Her shoulders squared, and she was ice. If she'd known how, she would have felt sadness. "Good day, sir."